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Love to God for His Holiness

COME , Holy Spirit! Come, enflame
Our lukewarm Hearts with sacred Fire:
May all our Passions, to Thy Name,
In Transports most refin'd, aspire.

May Love sublime our Hearts possess,
From every selfish Mixture free,
Fir'd with the Charms of Holiness,
The Beauty of Divinity.

We see the Beauty of Thy Grace,
That saves rebellious Worms from Hell:
But ah! the Charms of Holiness
We dimly see, and faintly feel.

Selfish and mercenary Views
Are with our purest Passions mixt:
A nobler Passion, Oh! infuse,
On Holiness supremely fixt.

Homage

Elvira, by love's grace
There goeth before you
A clear radiance
Which maketh all vain souls
Candles when noon is.

The loud clangor of pretenders
Melteth before you
Like the roll of carts passing,
But you come silently
And homage is given.

Now the little by-path
Which leadeth to love
Is again joyful with its many;
And the great highway
From love
Is without passers.

Sonnet Sent To Carlo Botta On Reading His History Of Italy

Botta! the Muse of History with thy pen
Sheds beauty, light, and wisdom on her pages,
Reviving thus, even in our days again,
Part of the Roman, Greek and Tuscan sages;
Their love of freedom, and their skill in men—
Hatred of force and fraud—the lore of ages—
With style's best virtue graced—most lovely when
Truth scorns both Demagogue's and Tyrant's wages.
There is a fascination in thy story
Beyond mere music from a Syren's tongue,
As though exulting in her ancient glory
Above the tale entranced, Ausonia hung,
Demanding back from Time now faint and hoary,

On Seeing a Little Child Dying From the Effects of Scalding

Poor bleeding hearts though to your garden came,
The dark-robed angel and your bud he called,
Trust Him who sent him—Love is still His name,
Although your flow'ret was so roughly pulled.

Reason would question, where Lord is the love?
Seeing yon prattler on her little bed,
All beauteous and gentle as a dove,
Tossing in anguish her bright golden head.

Faith sees the hieroglyphics, writ by thee
Though it can't read them, yet it knows them right,
We go to Calvary, and there we see,
The heart of love, moving the hand to smite.

Now the Lusty Spring

Now the lusty Spring is seen,
Golden yellow, gaudy Blew,
Daintily invite the view.
Everywhere, on every Green,
Roses blushing as they blow,
And inticing men to pull,
Lillies whiter than the snow,
Woodbines of sweet honey full,
All Love's Emblems and all cry,
Ladies, if not pluckt we dye,
Yet the lusty Spring hath staid,
Blushing red and purest white,
Daintily to love invite,
Every Woman, every Maid,
Cherries kissing as they grow;
And inviting men to taste,
Apples even ripe below,
Winding gently to the waste:

Hear, Ye Ladies That Despise

Hear, ye ladies that despise,
What the mighty Love has done;
Fear examples, and be wise:
Fair Calisto was a nun;
Leda, sailing on the stream
To deceive the hopes of man,
Love accouonting but a dream,
Doted on a silver swan;
Danaë, in a brazen tower,
Where no love was, loved a shower.

Hear, ye ladies that are coy,
What the mighty Love can do;
Fear the fierceness of the boy:
The chaste moon he makes to woo;
Vesta, kindling holy fires,
Circled round about with spies,
Never dreaming loose desires,
Doting at the alter dies;

February 21st, 1909

This was the day I died, when all Life's sun
Was blotted out in dark and dreadful night.
And I, who lived and laughed and loved the light,
In one brief moment knew my race was run;
Knew that the glory of my days was done,
Because no more with happy, human sight
In your dear eyes could I read love aright,
No more could feel how closely we were one,
As we had been for all the perfect years
From boyhood till you came to man's estate;
My bliss is bartered now for blinding tears.
So young to die!—And Joy with step elate
Had chosen you her own. Love unafraid

To James Jackson, M.D.

This shrine a precious gift enfolds;
Look, when its lids unclose,
Not on the shining cross it holds,
But on the love it shows.

What though the silvered brow may seem
Amid the youthful throng
A little farther down the stream
That bears us all along;

Those murmuring waves are mute today,
The stream forgets to run,
The brown locks mingle with the gray,
And all our hearts are one.

Ah, could we bring earth's sweetestsong
And bear its brightest gold,
The gift our grateful hearts would wrong,
Our love were still untold.

Love and the Child

‘W HY do you so clasp me,
And draw me to your knee?
Forsooth, you do but chafe me,
I pray you let me be:
I will but be loved now and then
When it liketh me!’

So I heard a young child,
A thwart child, a young child
Rebellious against love's arms,
Make its peevish cry.

To the tender God I turn:—
‘Pardon, Love most High!
For I think those arms were even Thine,
And that child even I.’

All Lovely Things

All lovely things will have an ending,
All lovely things will fade and die,
And youth, that's now so bravely spending,
Will beg a penny by and by.

Fine ladies all are soon forgotten,
And goldenrod is dust when dead,
The sweetest flesh and flowers are rotten
And cobwebs tent the brightest head.

Come back, true love! Sweet youth, return!—
But time goes on, and will, unheeding,
Though hands will reach, and eyes will yearn,
And the wild days set true hearts bleeding.

Come back, true love! Sweet youth, remain!—
But goldenrod and daisies wither,